College

To get to the field that the Post University sprint football team uses for practice at Hamilton Park, you have to scramble through a hole in a chain link fence. But for those coaches and players, the gap in the fence represents an opening that most of them probably never thought they would have.

These men are college football players and college football coaches. It's that simple.

Given an opportunity when the school added football late last year, dozens of young men have spent the past few months practicing and playing for their school. Yes, it's sprint football, complete with a 172-pound weight limit that serves to place an emphasis on skill and technique, but make no mistake — by any name, this is still football, college football.

Chatting with the coach and a couple of team captains the other day before practice, to a man they made it clear that if people head out to Municipal Stadium today to watch some of Post's first (and only for 2010) home football game, they will be pleasantly surprised by the level of play.

Coming off their first win, the Eagles hope to end this inaugural season with a 2-2 record and a wave of momentum heading into a long offseason.

But whatever happens on the plastic turf today, there is no question that the addition of football to the Post athletic program has been a positive experience for everyone involved.

"I would say that there are at least 20, 25 students (on the Post roster) who probably would not have had the opportunity to play college football somewhere else because of size," said Post athletic director Anthony Fallacaro, referring to the weight restrictions that are part of the sprint football rules. "So that was a very big attraction we had. This opened an opportunity that a lot of football players in our area wouldn't have had."

Considering that a year ago, Post had no players, no balls and no helmets, just taking the field for the game this afternoon against Mansfield (Pa.) University is quite an accomplishment.

And to have fared as well as they have in their previous games, again remembering that the school had never laced them up in a collegiate football setting before, points to some terrific work by the coaching staff and players.

Pete Ewald, the head coach who spent the past few autumns running things for Sacred Heart, spoke Thursday about how well the players have taken to the experience. Even though today is the end of the season on the field, after a short break Ewald said the players will be back in the weight room working toward next season when Post will play a full schedule.

Maybe then the team will be able to play on its own campus, although both Fallacaro and Ewald stressed how thankful they are for the support they've gotten from the city in terms of making space available. But wherever the games are played, the bottom line is that football at Post already seems entrenched.

And that's a good thing. As the school's athletic director said, "We are Waterbury's college football team."

Indeed they are. At no time in my memory has Post athletics been as relevant to the city sporting scene as it is today, what with the football experience and the excitement that new men's basketball coach Al Sokaitis is sure to generate.

But today is a day for a home football game. Imagine that. Post created an opportunity, and everyone has taken full advantage of it.

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